Mark Hamill: Filming ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ Is Like ‘Working For The CIA’

The production of the new Star Wars trilogy is infamous for its tight-lipped secrecy, but actor Mark Hamill has recently shed new light on the extent to which Disney and Lucasfilm strive to mitigate leaks, comparing the experience to working for the United States’ intelligence services.

Hamill made the comments during an interview with Polygon, ostensibly to promote his new YouTube series, Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest. No matter the focus of any interview Hamill gives, the actor can hardly escape his most famous role. Fans are understandably most interested in his return as Luke Skywalker in Episode VIII, which was preceded by only a moment of screen time in The Force Awakens.

Hamill obviously can’t say anything specific about the production, yet he did reveal the seemingly extreme lengths to which Disney and Lucasfilm have gone to avoid leaks.

“Man, I can’t say anything about anything. It’s like working for the CIA. You get your pages in the morning, and they take them from you as you walk so they can shred them before it somehow leaks. You have security lines you have to walk through, both to and from set. And, not to mention, you have to wear these big monk hoods to protect your costume from drones.”

Disney is no doubt justified in implementing such tight security around the Star Wars: Episode VIII set, as intrepid fans are always on the hunt for the smallest scrap of information regarding the franchise. Drones have been used in attempts to photograph the sets of both The Force Awakens and Episode VIII, as GamesRadar notes, with varying degrees of success. Before the release of The Force Awakens, a plot summary that was 99 percentage accurate made its way online, though fans had no way of verifying it before the movie’s release. Earlier this year, a similar plot summary for Episode VIII surfaced online, as the Inquisitr previously reported; its veracity is still questionable.

Hamill also noted in the interview that he was surprised by the strength of fans’ reaction to his appearance at the end of The Force Awakens, the brevity of which was mostly kept a secret. Though he was able to speak to some degree about his role in that film, the actor noted that during the production of Episode VIII, in which he is expected to have a much larger part to play, Disney and Lucasfilm are so strict that he can hardly mention any aspect of the film.

The actor also took a few moments during the interview to reflect on the role that he is possibly best known for outside of his iconic turn as Luke Skywalker; voicing the Joker in more than a dozen different animated iterations, most notably Batman: The Animated Series. Commenting on Jared Leto’s most recent take on the character, Hamill said that he loved the portrayal, musing that every actor who approaches the role brings a different interpretation to it, largely dependent on the needs of each particular script.

“I don’t think there’s a definitive version of the Joker and I don’t think there can be. It’s like Hamlet, really. It’ll be constantly redefined.”

Whatever the scope of Hamill’s appearance in Episode VIII, fans have more than a year to wait before witnessing it themselves. Though Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters in just under a month, Star Wars: Episode VIII is set to debut on December 15, 2017.